Columns ‹ Opinion
The Unanswerable Question About “The Buffett Rule”
That’s the one question about the present push for the “Buffett Rule” that President Obama can’t answer – at least not without exposing his own proposal as the shabbiest, sleaziest sort of partisan posing.
If the president cared sincerely about “tax fairness,” or the importance of millionaires paying a “proper” percentage of their income to...
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Can the GOP Win if the Economy Improves?
If, after the stumbles of the last week, the recovery resumed and the economy looked notably healthier in November, would Barack Obama deserve re-election?
Most Republicans would respond with a resounding “no”, but they need to prepare to explain their answer if they want to maintain any hope of victory. Abundant signs of a slowly improving economy...
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The Short-Short List of Three
With Mitt Romney all but universally acknowledged as the GOP certain nominee, attention has quickly and rightly turned to speculation about the former Massachusetts governor’s running mate.
I say “rightly” because not only will the choice greatly impact the election result, it could also profoundly shape American history if that choice were to become the...
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Joe Scarborough, Meet Pauline Kael
MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough recently got a lot of tongues wagging by saying that he didn’t know any establishment Republicans who thought Mitt Romney could win in the fall. “Nobody thinks he’s going to win,” Joe said, referencing the vast, unnumbered GOP establishment that Joe hangs with in the Green Room.
I don’t doubt Scarborough is telling the truth...
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The Broken Promise That Can Beat Obama
In the last 100 years, every U.S. president who lost his bid for a second term did so because he abandoned his principal promise to the American people. If Republicans can persuade the public that Barack Obama similarly shattered the pledge at the very core of his presidency, they will succeed in denying him the new lease on the White House he insists he...
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The Books And The Arguments That Matter In 2012
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow has a new book out, Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power. I don’t know if it is a good and important book because I haven’t read it yet. If her publisher sends it to me, I will read it and will have her on the show to discuss it in detail. Maddow has a big platform, and there is a chance that her book is good...
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History Shows: Odds Against Obama’s Second Term
As he campaigns for re-election, Barack Obama pursues a profound and uncommon honor denied to nearly two-thirds of his predecessors. Contrary to a widely held popular belief, political history doesn’t anoint incumbent presidents as automatic winners or even presumptive favorites. The numbers show that most presidents fail in their efforts to maintain a...
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Gop Will Lose the Future by Dissing College Grads
The angry, populist tone of the seemingly endless battle for the GOP presidential nomination may cripple the Republican Party in building a long-term connection with the fastest growing group of swing voters in the overall electorate: college graduates.
While the candidates focus their attention on the white working class as the key battle ground in their...
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One of Two Men Will Be President in January, 2013: Which One Do You Support?
With a sweeping win in Illinois that ranged across almost every demographic and income level, educational achievement or religious background, Mitt Romney has almost completely killed off the “zombie narrative” of a “brokered” convention.
That bizarre “story-line” isn’t dead in every precinct of the media, but those who...
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Hugh Hewitt: The mainstream media vultures gather
“Show up and shut up.”
Rabbi Harold Kushner was my guest for a PBS series on God in America, and this was his condensed version of advice for those who would comfort the grieving.
It ought to circulate around the halls of American broadcast media for once again there were no boundaries the collective media would respect in the aftermath of the...
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Why the MSM Doesn’t Want To Do the Romney Math
Mitt Romney’s nomination as the GOP standard bearer in the fall is as inevitable as Barack Obama’s renomination.
Meteors could hit either man, but it will be a Romney-Obama race in the fall, and the map favors Romney now, as do some national polls.
The election will come down to a dozen or so states: Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, New Hampshire,...
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In Radio Wars, Left Wants to Lower the Other Side Rather than Lift Their Own
Attempts to advance a leftwing media agenda by destroying Rush Limbaugh’s radio show will surely fail -just as efforts to advance a progressive economic agenda by punishing the nation’s most productive corporations and individuals have always failed.
The raging controversy over the nation’s top-rated conservative commentator won’t rearrange the...
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El Rushbo’s Apology: Saving Conservatism, Not His Own Show
Left-leaning pundits and activists who cackle gleefully at the prospect that current controversies will seriously damage Rush Limbaugh’s media career display their own vast ignorance of the talk-radio industry.
Yes, El Rushbo’s weekend apology for crude comments about Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke demonstrate his own recognition that these remarks...
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Doing the Math on Romney’s Path
David Parker is a very smart and successful businessman, a Romney guy, and an occasional contributor to the blog MittRomneyCentral. He is close to the Romney campaign, so I read his posts and emails with care, and found this bit of math from his missive on Wednesday morning to be the sort of analysis missing from the MSM as it sifts through Romney’s big...
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Unexpected Hope—From Hollywood
For conservatives and traditionalists, unusual good news from Hollywood—in terms of both weekend box-office results and, amazingly enough, the Oscar ceremonies.
Among all new films released Friday, Act of Valor counted as the runaway winner, with the public eagerly endorsing a breathlessly paced, passionately pro-military, hyper-patriotic action film about...
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Mitt’s Big Night and the Road Ahead
The significance of Mitt Romney’s big wins in Arizona and Michigan is debated in a symposium over at NationalReview.com. Along with the Weekly Standard’s Jay Cost, I think it is hard to see anyone but Mitt Romney as the GOP nominee. More to the point, I am of the view that the race for the GOP nomination is effectively decided. Not over, just...
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